Never ending quest

The quest I am writing about is attempting to catch up the blog with where life is at present. Some of me wants to not chronicle the past few weeks, but then i can't just not be a historian and skip vital pieces of our puzzle. So alas i once again delve into our recent past, this time moving to December 12 and 13th, these were dates that had been circled quite some time ago on our diaries. This is all due to the pantomime that Rebecca and I were going to be acting in. For those of you who don't know (most Americans) a panto is a comedy/slapstick in a way, usually a well known story like Cinderella or Peter Pan redone with some of the same story lines and characters but much literary freedom used as well. Ann Davis, a very talented dramatist and writer in our church has headed up a team that puts together a panto for the community every other year, this was the 4th one the TOPS group has done. She wrote the script in a two stint around September or something, and then pulls together all the numerous rehearsals, copies, amazing costuming and set design in a quite short period of time.

We were approached if we wanted to join in the buffoonery soon after arriving in Overton, and like all rookies we were eager to be involved with everything. So we agreed, and she wrote us into the story of Alas in Wonderland as American servants who were there to help with the Wonderland Winter Show. Of course there is much confusion between our English and their English, this leads to two scenes of mismatched statements, some roars by the audience as they lost themselves in laughter, and some puzzled looks on ours, the Dames and the Duchess's face. This production did not seem like a little slapped together village play, it was much more than that, in fact it included some 20+ people working together to pull it off, with 3 performances over the two days with 70+ people attending each show. Talk about a group of people coming together to do something for the community! It was a great way to get to know Pam, Richard, Ann, Pete, Mike, Fiona etc... better as we worked together weekly and talked backstage as well. There is such excitement and energy that springs forth as we work together, and this was another example of community coming back together. The TOPS group has headed up other ways to bless the community around us, this is fab being the hands and feet of Christ here on earth.

You will see some interesting pics of the pantomime, Rebecca and I are wearing maybe the least interesting costumes of black tops and black trousers, with black shoes. some of the others were much more festive (the Dame) explanatory of the their character (the cards, king and queen) or just plain silly (mad hatter, and hare). If you know the story of Alice in Wonderland you might understand some of the characters, but don't worry it didn't follow that story very closely. For those of you who saw it you can attest to that. We're very eager to be involved with other productions, I think that there may be something coming up in the spring, not sure but if it is happening I'll bet we'll back on stage!
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